While few called him a “Future Hall of Famer” at the time of his retirement, his case is actually better than most think – even if there are several players on the ballot with better chances.

• Traditional case: Here are the traditional numbers – Rolen played parts of 17 seasons, collected 2,077 hits with 316 home runs and 1,287 RBI. He had a career batting average of .281 with an on-base percentage of .364 and a slugging percentage of .490 in a total of 2,038 games and 8,518 plate appearances.

Rolen was selected for seven All-Star Games and won eight Gold Gloves at third base, was the 1997 Rookie of the Year and won one Silver Slugger. Among third basemen, only Brooks Robinson (16) and Mike Schmidt (10) have more Gold Gloves than Rolen.

But his case really comes from Wins Above Replacement (WAR). According to Baseball-Reference.com, Rolen has a career WAR of 70.0 and 70.1 from FanGraphs.com. His career WAR is the 10th best among third basemen all-time, with only two players – Chippers Jones and the active Adrian Beltre – ahead of him that are not in the Hall of Fame.

Baseball journalist Jay Jaffe created a statistic called JAWS (Jaffe WAR Score system) that averages a player’s overall WAR plus their seven-year peak WAR to give JAWS to measure Hall of Fame worthiness. Rolen’s JAWS is 56.8 (10th overall), better than the average of the 13 third basemen in the Hall of Fame. Only Beltre and Jones have a JAWS better than Rolen and aren’t in the Hall of Fame. His JAWS is better than Hall of Famers Home Run Baker (54.8), Jimmy Collins (45.8), John McGraw (42.3), Deacon White (35.7) and Pie Traynor (31.0).

“Thanks to that defense, he's 10th all-time in the B-Ref version of WAR among third basemen (70.0), with Jones and Beltre the only ones above him not already in the Hall, and 10th in JAWS (a more modest 14th in seven-year peak), 1.6 points above the average Hall third basemen – and that's factoring his short(ish) career,” Jaffe wrote The Enquirer in an email. “Particularly considering how underrepresented third basemen are in the Hall (just 13, the lowest at any position, with at least 19 at every other position besides catcher), to me he's an easy choice.”

• Ron Santo: Santo was long a sabermetric darling, but he wasn’t voted in by the Baseball Writers Association of America, finally earning his spot in the Hall of Fame in 2012 by way of the Veterans’ Committee.

Santo and Rolen’s case are nearly identical. Santo had a career slash line of .277/.362/.464 (to Rolen’s .281/.366/.490), 342 home runs (316 for Rolen), a wOBA of .367 (.368 for Rolen), wRC+ of 126 (to 122), 70.4 WAR (70.0 for Rolen), five Gold Gloves (8 for Rolen) and nine All-Star games (Rolen had seven).

There are also factors working against Rolen.

• Chipper Jones: Rolen’s not the only third baseman on this ballot and his case pales in comparison to Jones, who will likely be elected on his first ballot.

While Rolen’s statistics compare favorably when it comes to third basemen in general, they don’t match up to his ballot-mate. Jones bests Rolen in both the counting and rate statistics over their careers. Jones hit .303/.401/.529 for his career and amassed 2,726 hits and 468 home runs.

Jones wasn’t Rolen’s equal in the field, but he was better at the plate. He was also relatively healthy throughout his career, playing 2,499 games in his career and playing past his 40th birthday. Rolen played in 2,038 games, including his final game at age 37 in 2012. He played no more than 133 games in his final six seasons, including 330 games for the Reds after being part of a trade deadline deal with Toronto in 2009.

• Defensive value: Much of Rolen’s 70 career WAR is due in part to his defense. He was an excellent defender, both by traditional and advanced measurements. However, defense has carried few candidates to the Hall of Fame. His fellow classmates, Andruw Jones and Omar Vizquel, will also deal with this issue.

Jaffe notes that voters have struggled with recognizing two-way players at third base than perhaps any other position.

“While it's fair to question how much of (Gold Glove) was on merit as opposed to reputation, advanced defensive stats uphold his value,” Jaffe writes. “Via the combination of Total Zone and Defensive Runs Saved that Baseball-Reference uses, his 175 fielding runs above average ranks third at the position behind only Robinson and Adrian Beltre, and he's second to Beltre via the ones based on batted ball data, DRS and UZR (which only go back to 2003 and 2002, respectively).”

• Counting stats: No position player has been elected by the writers with fewer than Rolen’s 2,077 hits since 1989 when Johnny Bench was a first-ballot inductee with 2,048. Bench, though, was considered the greatest catcher of all time.

Rolen finished with 316 home runs and 1,287 RBI. While he has excellent rate stats, his counting stats are hampered by his injury history. He played 150 games just five times in his career and never after 2003. His career ended at age 37 because of back issues.

• Crowded ballot: The Hall of Fame allows voters to check just 10 names on their ballot and in recent years, that coupled with the candidacy of accused steroid users such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, has created a backlog of candidates and a crowded ballot.

Chipper Jones and Jim Thome are likely to sail into the Hall on their first ballot. Those two could be joined by a pair of players, Trevor Hoffman and Vladimir Guerrero, who garnered more than 70 percent of the votes last year, just shy of the 75 percent needed for election. Four other players – Edgar Martinez, Clemens, Bonds and Mike Mussina – earned more than 50 percent of the votes last time. While the ballot is gaining names, only one player (Lee Smith) who had been on the ballot for more than one year is coming off the ballot.

“(Voters have) had a hard time reckoning with the value of two-way third basemen, of guys at other positions who derive a lot of value from their defense, and guys who retire a bit early,” Jaffe wrote. “Two comparisons that come to mind are Bobby Grich and Kenny Lofton, good hitters and outstanding defenders. Grich (four Gold Gloves, +82 runs) is seventh in JAWS (and had a very similar 70.9 career WAR) despite a career that ended at age 36 due to back trouble. He got less than five percent in 1992 and has never gotten on another ballot. Lofton (four Gold Gloves, +108 runs) is ninth in JAWS but got less than five percent of the vote in 2013 (when Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio, Sammy Sosa and Curt Schilling all became eligible). I'd hate to see that happen to Rolen.”